


he knew who you were

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [213]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Future Fic, Healing, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Multi, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Protective Clint Barton, Redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 18:26:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2280087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky&Natasha are trying to atone; they never believe Clint when he says they don't need to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	he knew who you were

**Author's Note:**

> Title: he knew who you were  
> Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Linton Hopkins  
> Warnings: way post-Cap2; talk of violence/brainwashing; a mishmash of various backgrounds, but mainly movieverse  
> Pairings: Bucky/Clint/Natasha  
> Rating: PG  
> Wordcount: 520  
> Point of view: third  
> Prompt: MCU, Clint + Bucky or Natasha, I feel like a monster

Bucky and Natasha have spent years trying to atone for what they consider their crimes. Clint thinks it's bullshit, but he'll never tell them that. 

See, the thing of it is, the Winter Soldier was a gun and the gun is never at fault for what the hand aiming it does. And Clint will put an arrow in the eye of anyone trying to blame Bucky, and he has. 

And Natasha -- she didn't know right from wrong 'til way after she left the Red Room, and she wasn’t much more than a gun, then, either. Lots of people think ignorance of the law is no excuse, but that’s utter horseshit, and he’ll fight anyone who tries to hold her accountable, and he has. 

Clint’s on the far side of 50 now. He’s getting to be an old man. Natasha’s barely aged half a decade since they met, and Bucky not at all. They’re both older than him by a lot but he’ll die long before they start showing it. And he’ll probably die badly, too. He’s been expecting that since Barney left him dying on the ground. 

Bucky and Natasha think there’s a monster inside them, a monster who had control for years. And they have to make up for what the monster did, the people dead by their hands, the red still dripping down their ledger. 

Sometimes, Bucky still shies away from Clint’s hands. Sometimes, Natasha turns her face away when he goes in to kiss her. They don’t think they’re good enough. They think they should be hurt. 

For as old as they are, they’re still so young. Clint’s going to die before they figure out what he learned, laid up in a hospital bed, barely alive. 

Surviving is not a crime. Escaping is not a crime. Choosing to live is not a crime. 

Neither of them are monsters. Neither of them owes the world anything. 

_It makes me want to slaughter something_ , Steve confessed to him once, while Natasha and Bucky were curled up together, both looking so damned young and scared. 

_Take care of them for me, Cap_ , Clint had requested that night. 

Steve Rogers thinks it’s bullshit and horseshit and every other kind of shit, and he’ll be around long after Clint’s bones have turned to dust. He’s loved Bucky for the better part of a hundred years, even if some of it was lost in the ice, and he thinks Natasha is amazing. They’ll be in good hands after he’s gone. 

Bucky and Natasha aren’t the monsters. Clint’s known that from the moment he brought Natasha in rather than killing her from a mile away, from the moment he looked at Bucky trying to hide behind Steve. They’re just kids who never got a chance. 

But Clint… he spent ten years being a damned good assassin, knowing full well the whole time what he was doing. And he hasn’t once thought about atoning. 

But he doesn’t try to explain because they’ll refuse to understand. All he can do is love them and protect them and hope they’ll let Steve in after he’s gone.


End file.
